Old School: Monsters (Claire Dederer)

Old School: Monsters (Claire Dederer)

Author: Knox Robinson Productions May 5, 2026 Duration: 59:52
We are now routinely faced with a dilemma: News breaks hat an artist beloved has done something horrible. How does that change our experience of their art? There’s no one better to help us explore this thorny territory than Claire Dederer, author of "Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma." Get a copy of Claire's book at: https://www.powells.com/book/monsters-9780525655114 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's a particular kind of confinement that has nothing to do with physical walls, a feeling Amanda Knox understands in a way few others do. In Hard Knox with Amanda Knox, she moves beyond the headlines of her own story to examine the universal prisons we all inhabit-those of expectation, trauma, fear, and our own minds. This isn't a true-crime podcast; it's a series of conversations about the path out. Through candid talks with writers, artists, philosophers, and everyday people who've faced their own hard truths, the show digs into the raw materials of a resilient life. Listeners will hear explorations of mental fortitude, the messy pursuit of physical well-being, and how culture shapes our understanding of justice and personal freedom. Each episode feels like a deep, meandering walk with a curious friend, tackling how we rebuild after life fractures us. Produced by Knox Robinson Productions, the podcast creates a space where struggle is acknowledged not as a failure, but as a catalyst for becoming more grounded and authentic. For those who subscribe, there's an added layer of direct dialogue with Amanda herself in regular segments where she answers listener questions with remarkable candor. It’s ultimately about finding agency, the kind that can’t be taken away.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Hard Knox with Amanda Knox
Podcast Episodes
Old School: The Canceling of the American Mind (Greg Lukianoff) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:11
Greg Lukianoff is one of our nation's foremost defenders of free speech, co-author of "The Canceling of the American Mind," and president of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. His journey to this…
Married to the Work [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:26
What happens when your creative partner is also your spouse? Amanda and Chris dive into the messy, rewarding world of creative collaboration,from co-writing a book of love poems to navigating the high-stakes pressure of…
How To Be A Woman in Public (Sophie Gilbert) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:53
What happens when a culture decides that visibility is power and then punishes women for being visible? Amanda sits down with Sophie Gilbert, staff writer at The Atlantic, and author of Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turn…
Walkie Talkies [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:03
In this monthly Hard Knox essay Amanda explores the "third way of being": not alone, not truly together, but that warm middle state where you want someone near without the obligation of actually meeting them. It's the fe…
The Myth of Confrontation [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:23
What happens when confronting the person who hurt you doesn’t bring the closure you hoped for? In this episode, Amanda responds to a listener wrestling with whether to confront an abusive family member and what to do whe…
Why Men Need a Tribe (Elliott Ackerman) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:40
Elliot Ackerman is a decorated combat veteran, CIA paramilitary officer, and New York Times bestselling novelist. In this episode, he joins Amanda Knox to talk about what happens when the chapter closes and you have to f…
A Wee Existential Crisis [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 15:20
What do you do when the thing that gave your life shape is finally, imperfectly, done? In this solo episode, Amanda Knox reads an original essay about arriving at the other side of an eighteen-year fight for her own stor…
How Paying for Intimacy Changes Everything (Andrea Werhun) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:25:20
Andrea Werhun is an author, filmmaker, and former sex worker whose memoir and documentary Modern Whore challenge how we think about sex, labor, and stigma. In this wide ranging and often funny conversation, Andrea and Am…
Ignorance Is Not Objectivity [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:29
What's the difference between bias and expertise? When a critic dismissed Amanda Knox's commentary on the Lucy Letby case as the grievance of a biased woman, the real question got buried: can lived experience be a form o…
Why You Believe Weird Things (Michael Shermer) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:22:53
What is truth, and why does finding it actually matter? Amanda sits down with Dr. Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine, longtime Scientific American columnist, and author of Truth: What It Is, How to F…